OAK: Work law being violated on the part of Kosovo institutions

OAK Board member Hamdi Malushaj said that the Oda of Kosovo's Afarism has thoroughly analysed the Labour Bill and recorded several points seen as problematic and are in conflict with each other, affecting that the provisions of this law have negative implications in both the public and private sectors.

“The working hour means the time period during which the employee performs work or services in the best interests of his employer, and the full work schedule takes 40 hours a week if not otherwise defined. And Article 28 that regulates holidays and job shortages points out: Break time from paragraph 1. And 2. of this article, considered a past time at work”, Malushaj said.

He added that these two points are contrary to each other because if the working schedule is the time during which the employee performs jobs or better employers' services, then the vacation time should not be considered a work hour.

OAK member said they have made comparisons with European countries such as Austria, Finland, Germany, France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc. Which they don't consider working hours.

<x0Institutions and public enterprises work at 8: 00 a.m., with an hour off, which takes only 7 hours a day, 35 hours a week respectively, not as defined by the Law 40 hours, in such a case, damage to the state budget and citizens”, he stressed.

Malushaj clarified it with facts showing the hours and millions that the state of Kosovo suffers loss.

The average wage in the public sector is about 600 euros, meaning around 3.75 euros per hour of work. There are 237 days a year working in Kosovo, 1896 hours during the year respectively, and according to him, if we calculate the losses we suffer as a result we have 237 hours of losses, with about 100,000 employees in the public sector, so about 88m euros are created financial losses from employees in the public sector”, he came in.

Speaking to the private sector, Malushaj said there are about 250 thousand employed, with average salary of around 400 euros, 2.5 euros per hour, and, respectively, losses in the private sector are created at around 74m euros. According to him, a total of every year we lose over 162m euros as a result of the issue.

Kosovo's Afarism Oda considers that the workers' vacation time should not be counted as hours of work, but as a vacation, which means there are only 35 hours a week of work, rather than as it is legally defined 40 hours a week. In EU countries rest is not counted as hours of work.

While Abraham's position, co-ordinator in the OAK, said they are constantly analyzing the Labour Bill, which is currently in the Assembly, where we also address the Ministry of Labour and Social Management for this matter but which has shown no readiness for co-operation.

“We like OAK insist that this bill not be voted and converted to Government, so that the unclear provisions and have a real law that will serve both employees and employers”, she said.